In a modern media environment, multiple media providers may provide broadcast coverage of the same event. A sporting event involving a team associated with a certain city may be covered by a television or radio station in that city, as well as by a national television network. A local radio team may travel with a National Basketball Association team, for example, and broadcast every game. The game may also be televised by one of several competing national networks. Coverage of other public events may also be broadcast by several networks or stations. A public radio station may broadcast coverage of a presidential speech, in parallel with the major television networks, for example.
Some users may wish to take advantage of the fact that an event may be covered by multiple broadcasters. As an example, a user may wish to hear his hometown announcer's play-by-play of a basketball game, normally available via radio or internet streaming, but may also want to see the game as it is broadcast by a national television network. Regular media consumers (of sports and news, for example) sometimes establish preferences and loyalties for such media sources. From the broadcaster's perspective, there are commercial reasons for making broadcasts available to loyal consumers. Media sources may respond to these loyalties by establishing and maintaining specific reporting profiles to retain and grow their audience. This consumer preference may drive ratings, which in turn may drive advertising sales.
Prior to the availability of digital delivery and pay-TV programmed delays, consumers may have mixed audio/visual streams covering the same event by manually turning the volume down on the TV during a broadcast, and turning the volume up on the radio broadcast. Digital delays (including programmed FCC delays and mechanical processing and delivery delays) have significantly eroded the functionality of this “analog solution.” Now, live TV, cable, and radio broadcasts are frequently up to 10 seconds out of synchronization, producing an unacceptable media experience for those attempting to mix media streams in this manner. This situation is worsened by the fact that nationally broadcast feeds of live events are not broadcast in synchronicity. Often, the feed from one cable provider may be several seconds ahead or behind that of the same feed from a different cable or satellite provider.
In the drawings, the leftmost digit(s) of a reference number identifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.